Diary of a 30-something idiot

slm6002

Fantastic news on cancelling the non essential tv subscriptions.  Hopefully that money can go on making sure things are not so tight.

Forgive me if already sorted, but when you were working from home at your old house, you needed the expensive broadband as the internet wasn't so great.  Now you are in your new house is there anyway to downgrade or swap over to a normal internet service, and therefore making another saving?

Keep going - its not a quick journey to be on, but will be worth it in the end.

foxgloves

That's a wise decision, @foxandflowers. The important thing at the moment is to reach a situation where you can pay all of your monthly bills every month without fail, as well as operate a planned grocery budget which lasts to the end of the month. Anything which frees up more money for those essentials will help with that goal. 
F

CMD79

This is BIG!! Well done! It was necessary and hopefully you can put that money to work on paying debts down. 

foxandflowers

January Round Up. ⚠️ (LONG POST ALERT!!) ⚠️

I have been tracking every single penny I spent this month, and can now give an accurate breakdown of where exactly everything went wrong. So I feel quite good about that, in that now I know what the mistakes I make ARE, I can hopefully avoid them in the future.

Mr Fox and I have agreed to do a weekly budget check in, so I can tell him where we are overspending if we are, and where we need to pull back, and where is okay to spend. We did our first meeting yesterday, and he pointed out that as there is only really enough in the pot to get by, rather than to actually survive if an emergency occurs, that we needed to cancel Sky TV. I was a little in shock if I’m honest with you! This includes the Sports channels. I still have to pay the Sky Glass contract, at £18 a month, but if I cancel the Direct Debit, they will send the outstanding amount to a collections agency, and then I can add it to Stepchange. The question is whether I want to do that, or if I just keep paying the £18.

This month has been pretty bad for spending more than I wanted to or expected to, so some figures are way out, and others probably need adjusting within the budget to accurately reflect what actually happens.

As @foxgloves said, the key thing at the moment is to make sure all the bills are paid, and there is food on the table each month, without worrying.

18% of my spending was groceries, 15.7% was invoices, 9.8% was Council Tax, and 9.5% was repaying my friend some of the money she loaned me to fix the van.

The Good

I paid the majority of my bills apart from Stepchange (oops), Welsh Water and my own phone bill this month. That includes the double payment of Council Tax, as it bounced last month so was £310 this month, and a £25 administrative charge for the van insurance, as the Direct Debit for that bounced. I made my first standing order payment to my friend, and sent her an additional £250. Overall, I was £251.47 over budget on essential spends, and the majority of that was on food.  I underspent on Fuel by £92.41.

The Bad

I didn’t pay Stepchange, Welsh Water or Tesco Mobile.

I also didn’t put any money into the MOT pot, which is problematic as both the van and car MOT’s are in July, and the van almost certainly will need work doing (aside from the new tyres it also needs).

Category wise: General budgeted £20, overspends were £1.29.
£11.73 of this was on Apple Store, or as Caleb Hammer would say bull**** purchases. Gah.

Shopping budgeted £1 (haha) and spent £155.28. I bought Filofax refills, a mini slowcooker and mini grill (for the van), spot patches, windscreen cover (for the van), bicycle stabilisers for my daughter, paint for the kitchen, radiator keys and compression valves, and a pen knife (birthday present).

Clothes budgeted £1 (hahaha) and spent £58.95. I bought brand new dungarees (on sale) which I shouldn’t have done, a coat, a pink boiler suit, and two pairs of cargo trousers for my husband. I did make double this selling things on Vinted, so I don’t feel TOO bad about it, but I still should not have got the dungarees… even if they do have strawberries on the knees.

Invoices was an unexpected hit at £496.93.

Overall my budget for the “Non Essential” category was £147.97, and we ended up £960.58 over. This absolutely CANNOT happen again.

The UGLY.

Overall Overspending was £1,324.78 (about £750 of this is entirely van related). I don’t even know how this was achieved, given that I didn’t started the month with £78.05.. I am ending the month with £208.07 to my name, and £60 pending in my Vinted account. I have 27 days until I get paid again.

So what changes?

February is the start of my new job so my income will be going up by £160 a month after tax. We have also cancelled £108 worth of TV services. I have adjusted some categories of spending, for example increasing grocery spends, and decreasing fuel spends. We have increased the money going to the Car/Van MOT pot, set up a holiday pot, and increased general spending category, by removing the Eating Out/Annual Subscriptions/Clothes/Shopping categories.

I will continue to sell what I can via Marketplace/Vinted. Since last January I have paid of £13, 053.20 of debt. My aim for this year is to clear any debt that is NOT on Stepchange, which is just shy of 10k. £8982 is outstanding to friends and family, and £759.40 to companies that refuse to work with Stepchange. My current Debt Free Date with Stepchange is December 2050… I would be 60 years old… I do NOT want to be paying £100 a month for the next 26 years…

cocalls

Could you sell either the car or the van-you cant afford to run two vehicles if only one of you is working.

FacelessNumber

Hi @foxandflowers, I have read your diary over the last week or so, you've had a rough year with various things so I think the fact that you're still here and trying to get on top of the debt very inspiring! When you say you've paid 13k of debt, has your debt gone down that much, or are you borrowing more as you pay some off?

Great work on reducing some outgoings, hopefully along with the pay rise that will help make a dent in some of the debts! Bookmarked your diary now so will join the others on cheering you on!

Baileys_Babe

I am glad that Mr Fox realised that your current spending levels are unsuitable for your income. I am pleased and amazed that he said the TV subscription needs to go. Hopefully, the weekly check-ins will get him to take continued positive action to support the household and bring in some money.

You should be very proud of yourself for explaining the situation to him in a way where he saw it as a joint issue, not something you need to deal with by yourself while he does as he pleases.

WinterWarrior

What happens if you don’t pay stepchange? Will last months just rollover or are there bigger repercussions? Have you budgeted enough this month to pay stepchange, water and mobile twice to catch up? 

Tracking the spending is really positive though. It will help you get back on track so you don’t miss things in future. 

stymied

Do you know why you bought the mini grill and slow cooker for the van? Is this as part of a definitive plan to use it for holidays or mostly because you saw them and they were cute? Slow cookers and stabilisers often come up on free sites, especially if you ask x

Kim_13

Or alternatively, could you take the van off of the road until the debt is more manageable and you have the funds for the work it will need? I’m guessing it isn’t cheap to tax (you’ve mentioned it’s gas guzzling) and you’ll be able to enjoy holidays in it more in the future. When funds allow, you could also tax it in the summer and SORN it in the winter (being able to pay 12 months upfront and SORNing at the end of a month is the best way to do this, as it means no surcharges.)

How long do you have left on the Sky Glass contract?